SINGAPORE: Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has apologised to her countrymen for the failure of the country’s athletes to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris, even as a former minister acknowledged that the results were “average”.
“I apologise because we have yet to succeed. I am not using the word ‘fail’ because the Road to Gold (RTG) programme was set up not just for the Paris Games but the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as well,” Ms Yeoh was quoted as saying by local media on Tuesday (Aug 13).
The Road to Gold initiative was launched by Ms Yeoh’s ministry in March 2023 with the goal of giving Malaysia’s elite athletes the support needed to win the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal.
On Tuesday, Ms Yeoh said that her ministry will continue supporting Malaysia’s athletes and coaches.
She added that the committee behind the Road to Gold programme will meet to discuss the technical reports from all teams involved in the Paris Olympics to assess their performance, as well as prepare a report on the programme’s expenditure.
Meanwhile, former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has defended the performance of the Malaysian athletes at Paris Olympics, saying that it matched past performances at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and London in 2012.
But he added that the two bronze medals won in Paris fell short of the five medals the country had won at Rio 2016.
“I don’t see this as a failure, but we need to acknowledge that our results were average,” he said in a podcast and quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
On Monday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that the government is coming up with new plans to improve Malaysia’s sports performance following the conclusion of the Olympic Games in Paris that saw its athletes bring home two bronze medals.
He also added that Malaysians “must accept this result” even as he congratulated the Malaysian athletes who had competed in the Olympics.
The two bronze medals at the recent Games came courtesy of the badminton team – Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (men’s doubles) and Lee Zii Jia (men’s singles).
Hopes for the elusive gold medal were dashed after cyclist Azizulhasni Awang was disqualified on Aug 10 for a technical error in the track cycling discipline of keirin. Azizulhasni took bronze at Rio in 2016 and silver at the Tokyo Games.
With its 15 medals across silver and bronze, Malaysia is the most successful country without a gold at the Olympic Games over the years.
